HOUSTON (AP) — Almost seven decades after a Black man from Texas faced execution over a crime he didn’t commit, officials have now exonerated him, acknowledging the case was marred by both false evidence and racial prejudice. Tommy Lee Walker, who was executed in 1956, was wrongfully convicted of murdering a white woman in Dallas.

Walker met his tragic fate in the electric chair in May 1956, accused of the rape and murder of 31-year-old Venice Parker.

During his trial, prosecutors painted Walker as the assailant who attacked Parker, a store clerk, as she headed home on the night of September 30, 1953. The crime occurred amidst a climate of fear and racial tension in Dallas, as reports circulated about a Peeping Tom, suspected to be a Black man, terrorizing local women, according to the Dallas County Criminal District Attorney’s Office.

An in-depth examination of Walker’s conviction, conducted by the Dallas County Criminal District Attorney’s Office in collaboration with the Innocence Project of New York and Northeastern University School of Law’s Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project, revealed significant flaws in the case against him.

The review highlighted discrepancies in the testimony of a Dallas police officer who alleged that Parker had identified her attacker as a Black man. However, several witnesses contradicted this claim, stating that Parker, after being assaulted, was unable to do anything other than convulse and bleed profusely. Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot discussed these findings during a Wednesday meeting with Dallas County commissioners, urging them to officially declare Walker’s innocence.

During the next few months after Parker’s killing. hundreds of Black men were rounded up by authorities and four months later, Walker, then 19 years old, was arrested.

Walker was subjected to threatening and coercive interrogation tactics by Will Fritz, a Dallas police captain who had been a member of the Ku Klux Klan, Creuzot said.

Walker later testified he confessed to the killing because he was afraid for his life, Creuzot said.

At his trial, Walker’s lawyers presented 10 witnesses who testified that at the time of the murder, they were with Walker and his girlfriend when she gave birth to their son, Edward Lee Smith, at a local hospital, according to the Innocence Project.

“But this carried little weight in Jim Crow Dallas,” the Innocence Project said.

Walker was convicted by an all-white jury in 1954.

“The prosecution in this case presented misleading and inadmissible evidence,” Creuzot said. “This case, while it has undeniable legal errors, was riddled with racial injustice during a time when prejudice and bigotry were woven throughout every aspect of society, including the criminal justice system.”

Creuzot credited the work of journalist Mary Mapes, who first began investigating Walker’s case 13 years ago.

“He paid with his life for a crime he could not have committed,” Mapes told commissioners.

During an emotional moment at Wednesday’s meeting, Smith, Walker’s now 72-year-old son, and the victim’s son, Joseph Parker, hugged each other.

“I’m so sorry for what happened,” Parker told Smith

“And I’m sorry for your loss,” Smith replied.

Smith had earlier told commissioners that his father’s wrongful execution was very hard for him and his mother.

“I’m 72 years old and I still miss my daddy,” Smith said as he cried. “She said, ’Baby, they give your father the electric chair for something he didn’t do.’ ”

Joseph Parker told commissioners he hopes that Walker’s exoneration will help prevent wrongful convictions in the future.

“If nothing else comes from this situation … it’s that we learn to try not to make the same mistake again. The mistake being what? The mistake being the injustice, the taking of an innocent life,” Parker said.

At the end of Wednesday’s meeting, Dallas County commissioners unanimously passed a symbolic resolution declaring that Walker was wrongfully convicted and executed and what happened to him represented “a profound miscarriage of justice.”

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